Jade Loville admitted it’s a little odd being on the other side of the Arizona-Arizona State rivalry.
She thought about that in the offseason when she decided to transfer to the UA program.
Loville is the first Sun Devil in the Adia Barnes coaching era to swap the maroon and gold for the blue and red.
For Loville, all that mattered was where she would get the right coaching to keep improving not only for this season, but also looking ahead to the future. Her dream is to play at the next level.
She knew that Arizona was the right place for her.
“I never expected to be over here,” Loville said. “I didn’t want to leave a bitter taste in everybody’s mouth that I came to the rival. (It was) strictly for my career and was what’s best for my path. It’s all love with everybody over there, but I’m super excited to have this one to start off the year. It’s going to be fun.”
No-18-ranked Arizona (10-1) hosts rival ASU (7-4) in the Pac-12 home opener Thursday at 6 p.m. at McKale Center.
Everyone remembers when Loville went off for 27 points in last year’s game in Tempe. She went 9 for 19, hit 2 of 3 from beyond the arc and knocked down 7 of 8 free throws. She also pulled down eight defensive rebounds as ASU upset Arizona.
Loville finished the season averaging 16.6 points per game — the second leading scorer in the Pac-12.
Former ASU guard Jade Loville, center, found herself surrounded by Wildcats on this play in Tempe last year. Loville helped the Sun Devils win that game, then transferred down to Tucson this offseason.
This year’s ASU team looks a lot different without Loville and longtime coach Charli Turner Thorne, who retired last spring. As expected, there was a lot of player movement. The Sun Devils have five transfers this season including all-everything Tyi Skinner, who came along with new coach Natasha Adair from Delaware.
Despite this, Loville still knows her opponent pretty well. Over the summer, her trainer in Phoenix had open gyms and many Sun Devils would come in to play against her and UA teammate Madi Conner.
She also knows the tendencies of one former teammate, junior guard Jaddan Simmons, who has taken on a bigger role this season and is averaging 13.7 points per game.
“She gets in the paint very easily. She’s always been really good in ball screens,” Loville said. “I think trapping them is going to be big for us. That aggressive defense is something that we want to apply to every team that we play. I think I can definitely use that to my advantage a little bit. Regardless, we still have to do our job and follow the game plan, but I think definitely defensively that’s something that I can think about before going into this game.”
Loville knows a lot about this rivalry game — probably more than most Wildcats. At ASU, all transfers and freshmen student-athletes go through an orientation to explain the meaning of the Territorial Cup. She has shared the importance of this game with the UA freshmen.
Another difference for Loville being on the other side this season is that she isn’t expected to carry the full scoring burden. As a Wildcat she has more shooters around her. Three other teammates are scoring at least 11 points per game. Loville is averaging 12.8 points, behind only Shaina Pellington, who leads UA at 13.7.
Loville’s shooting numbers have improved with UA. She is shooting 51% from the 3-point line, compared to 43% last year. From the field she is shooting 46%, while last year she was at 43%.
Loville was open to new ways to build consistency in her shot. UA assistant coach Salvo Coppa introduced a new warmup routine and it’s working. Against New Mexico, Loville scored 27 points and over the last five games she is averaging 14.8 points per game.
Loville said Coppa explained that “having these repetitive movements in your in your form, is going to translate to your shot when you’re just playing catch and shoot.”
“I want to continue to just have this good feeling in my shot before I start shooting — mid-range or any type of jump shot — and I think just having that consistency in my warmup definitely helps with, ‘OK, these movements are obviously muscle memory, but it also connects my brain to the movements of my body.
“Every time that I catch and shoot, I do want it to be the same shot and so I think that definitely helped with my consistency,” Loville said. “I like to keep a consistent warmup before I work out. Before I started my shooting workout, so I think that was a perfect way to ease into my shot instead of just going out and bombing.”
The new routine is all about breaking down Loville’s shot. She starts close to the basket and shoots with one hand trying for perfect swishes. She only thinks about her fundamentals, “my elbow, having my vision clear to the basket, finishing all the way through.”
Once she gets the rhythm going, she takes a step back and does the same thing. She does this all the way to the free throw line. Then she starts over, but this time she adds her guide hand. Her focus now is keeping that hand straight.
Besides working on her shot, Loville is looking to fill the stat sheet with more rebounds and more assists. She has taken Barnes’ words to heart: not just settling for the three or the jump shot but passing up a good shot for a great shot.
“I want to show that I can do other things other than spot up and shoot,” Loville said. “I’m a dynamic player that doesn’t show as much as I’m capable of and I think with the coaches that I have they’re going to continue to push me to grab those boards and pass up my good shots for great shots. I think that growth is going to continue to come. I’m excited for that.”
Rim shots
UA plays three games in five days to kick off the Pac-12 season. ASU on Thursday, Cal on Saturday and No. 2 Stanford on Monday. To prepare, Barnes has taken a slightly different this week.
Monday and Tuesday they worked on big picture “of what we’ll face defensively against Cal and Stanford because in between the games, it’s too short to really work on it.”
The schedule isn’t quite how Barnes would have liked to start Pac-12 play. Unfortunately, she and ASU’s Adair both had their nonconference schedules set by the time the league put out the information and they couldn’t find another date in December. Then, there is something else. The Cal and Stanford games are in the Bay Area.
“The (Arizona) Bowl game is always on a Friday, so it always makes us go on the road, which I am not happy with either,” Barnes said. “I want to open up the Pac-12 one of these days at home and never can. That’s just stuff to address later. … I stated my disagreement. But it is what it is. I can’t control that but it’s not what I would have chosen at all.”
Thursday’s game against ASU is a Red Out. Arizona is asking fans to wear red.
Montaya Dew, a member of UA’s class of 2023, is officially in Tucson. She will spend the next upcoming semester practicing with the Wildcats but won’t be playing until next fall.
